It was a most wise appointment, as we shall now see.
EXPOUNDING THE CONSTITUTION
Chief Justice Marshall took his place at the head of the National Judiciary. The Government under the Constitution, was only organized twelve years before, and in the interval eleven amendments of the Constitution had been regularly proposed and adopted.
Comparatively nothing had been done judicially to define the powers or develop the resources of the Constitution. In short, the Nation, the Constitution, and the Laws were in their infancy.
Under these circumstances, it was most fortunate for the Country, that the great Chief Justice retained his high position for thirty-four years, and that during all that time, with scarcely any interruption, he kept on with the work he showed himself so competent to perform.
As year after year went by and new occasion required, with his irresistible logic, enforced by his cogent English, he developed the hidden treasures of the Constitution, demonstrated its capacities, and showed beyond all possibility of doubt, that a Government rightfully administered under its authority, could protect itself against itself and against the world.
Hardly a day now passes in the Court he so dignified and adorned, without reference to some decision of his time, as establishing a principle which, from that day to this, has been accepted as undoubted law.
In all the various questions of constitutional, international, and general law, the Chief Justice was at home; and when, at the end of his long and eminent career, he laid down his life, he and those who had so ably assisted him in his great work, had the right to say, that the judicial power of the United States had been carefully preserved and wisely administered.
The Nation can never honour him or them, too much for the work they accomplished.
Chief Justice Waite (Arranged)